


Once Upon a Darkmoon Blade: The Day I Renewed My Vows

by OctoSlender



Series: Once Upon a Darkmoon Blade [3]
Category: Dark Souls (Video Games)
Genre: Diary/Journal, Drama, F/M, Parody, Satire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:40:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22879627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctoSlender/pseuds/OctoSlender
Summary: The final chapter of Once Upon a Darkmoon Blade.
Relationships: Ashen One/Company Captain Yorshka
Series: Once Upon a Darkmoon Blade [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/761940
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Once Upon a Darkmoon Blade: The Day I Renewed My Vows

_The day I renewed my vows_

Ever since I dedicated my service to Captain Yorshka, I’ve come to realise I never actually traversed the castle atop Anor Londo. The thought never occurred. I have asked my captain about the castle since I joined and would taste the fruits of my queries: Father Gwyn of old, the great king who triumphed over the dragons; his four knights that served him in defending the realm; the grand halls that led to Gwynevere’s chambers who protected Anor Londo from those who dare threaten it, and dear her brother Lord Gwyndolin who used to lead the Blades of the Darkmoon.

I still remember how my captain painted Anor Londo by means of her words, “Once upon a time, the sun was an everlasting friend of Anor Londo which granted painted the kingdom in an eternal gold,” said she, peering into the memory of a better time than the actual castle that was before her, “Perhaps I will hear of my brother one day but until that day comes, it is our utmost duty to defend the realm.”

I remember that smile well. She was still kinder to me back then.

Now, what curls her lips depends upon how abysmal I fail my next task.

I suppose I had been occupied with my duties and my gains that the importance of why I hunted the guilty slipped my mind. As I rest on the platform high above the church devoted to my captain, questions haunted my mind the way questions were wont to do in these moments of silence. _Why is the company captain trapped in her own church? Where are the emissaries to keep her informed? What happened to the sun?_

It was a loud silence that drove me to ask these questions to my captain who understandably did not have answers to spare.

Captain Yorshka’s sigh was a whisper that got carried to the wind, “I cannot say, Knight. Can thou?”

“I cannot,” I replied. “So, how about we make the travel?”

“And what dost thou believe the best path to go about it?” She asked.

“I carry you down. We fight off the dangers in Irithyll, have a nice walk around the castle and be back here,” I said.

“We?”

“Right. Me.”

Captain Yorshka sighed again, “Thy intentions are noble, but I refuse. I have my duties here.”

I frowned at her, confused. In all my time serving her, she has never left her chair, “… What duties my captain?”

“The duty of waiting for thou to fulfil yours. How goes the endeavour?” She asked, her face unamused, a blade to cut down my digressing adventure. “Make the journey,” she at last said, waving me off, “I, for good reason, am prone to forgetting that thou art the Ashen One.”

I cry every time.

It was a gruelling task to scale the castle. Perhaps it was for the best that my dear captain stayed behind. Since my departure, I had battled giant lizards, fat sorcerers, and knights in silver. I ought to give myself praise more often as, despite my failures, my adversaries were weaker than me. They did not come close to levelling with the gains that I had. That aside, the path to the castle itself was a treacherous path. It was a maze to meander so high above the ground on the eaves of connecting bridges that only served to support the castle’s structure. That is all behind me now. I have rested my bones beside the corpse of a giant at the foot of a staircase I found by the side of the castle gates. The God of Gains rested here by his tools. I stumbled upon his coal, dusty and decrepit like the rest of the castle. If He was God, I was merely a believer. However, I knew of a man in Firelink Shrine who was worthy of being His Messenger. I paid my deep respects before moving on.

This castle is nothing like what Captain said it was. I wonder, does she even know? I’m penning this on the footsteps high above the great hall she spoke of. This was a graveyard of a castle. Dead. Dusty. There was no sun here. There were no gods either. What was left were those blue-robed all-brains-no-gains, their pet dog, and some slime balls. Nothing a good hammer can’t handle. Where I want to be in is the room those sorcerers were guarding. Five chugs of Estus, it’s time to go to work.

I reported my findings to my company captain.

She looked at me and smiled sweetly, in an instant I felt the danger, “Aldritch’s followers, lost silver knights, and a deep accursed creature?”

“That’s right, my captain.” I replied.

“Thou… routed them?” She asked, smiling even wider.

“No, I pummelled them into the dirt,” I corrected.

“Do not be offended Knight but ‘tis difficult to believe. In fact, I don’t.” She said and her smile ceased as soon as she did, “Hath thou considered the life of a bard?”

“Thought you might say that. That’s why I brought treasure and trophies.” I fished out the skull of the blob sorcerer the other sorcerers were guarding. He was a tough one hiding behind all those magic arrows and balls but magic wielders, heh.

Company Captain Felicia gagged as soon as she saw my trophy with its rotting flesh. She waved it away, muttering after, “I praise onto thee brother Gwyndolin for choosing for thine followers to present only the ears.”

I continued by telling her, “Yes, he was a weird sorcerer. Must’ve been so lazy depending on magic that his bottom half became slime.” I was expecting one of her remarks but when she said nothing, I explained further, “All skin and bones from waist up. Frail-looking, wore a weird crown with prongs and had hair like the moon and everything.”

In retrospect, I wish I had known who that was to her. It explains the flicker in her otherwise understandably condescending expression. “After I dealt with him, I went up to the castle chambers. It was empty all except for this,” I said, I dropped the ring I found in her hand the same moment I had been summoned for my actual duties. “Captain, I must take my leave now. Duty calls.”

“V—Very well,” She said.

It was that stutter that told me everything. I may not have been the sharpest blade in the armoury but I knew a thing or two about people. And to the Darkmoon I have never prayed as hard as I did then to let me stay instead.

Culling this sinner was short work. Thankfully, the hero in need did not, in fact, need me at all. I was sent back minutes after I arrived. Grateful for the ear in my pack, I crept up slowly around the church tower. Trepidation kept me from making my presence known and for good reason. A sharp wail pierced the sky from the other side of the tower, answered by the wind and the beasts below the church. It was the quietus to my approach.

“Oh, dear brother Gwyn, what hath crept upon thee?” Yorshka at last asked a question addressed to no one. “Brother Gwyndolin, Sister Gwynevere…” she sobbed.

I had killed what she was protecting. Even though she would later explain to me that the blob was likely Lord Aldritch horridly devouring what was left of her brother, when I told her what I did, I also slammed my hammer down on the one thing that kept her up here: Duty. Perhaps even family. All those years watching over Anor Londo: What was left for her to protect here?

However, I knew if I thought too much into it, I would have never arrived at an answer, “Captain,” I said upon my approach.

Captain Yorshka dried her tears, wiped off the last of them with her knuckles, “Forgive me, it is unruly of a leader to appear weak in front of her subjects,” She said.

“It’s unruly to be weak but what I see is and always has been a strong captain. Even now,” I said.

“What have I left, Knight?” My captain asked me before she further expelled the pain of a shattered world, “I have stood guard keeping watch over the castle for eons. Truly, I was a knave to be blind to the blight within its walls.” Weeping once more, she said, “This company captain hath failed in his duties. Oh, how Anor Londo crumbles. Dear brother, forgive me.”

I shared her dolour in silence.

“Thy duty be done, Knight. Sulyvahn hath left me to ruins,” She said.

“No,” I said.

“Knight…” She trailed, “What would-be foe is there left but thieves drawn to an abandoned castle of treasure? What adjudicator is present to pass judgement upon the sinners? What are we guarding?”

“What is left,” I protested. I had made up my mind never to leave my company captain, now more than ever did I have to dig into my resolve.

“And what is left?”

“The valley and its castle. Its last memory reside in you, captain.”

Captain Yorshka gestured me to rise.

“It is in these trying times that we find ourselves faced with the greatest adversary: Ourselves. I had risen an Ashen One yet to link the flame was a fate that I did not choose. It was bequeathed onto me regardless. Indeed, I did believe that it was my calling. That was until I met you, my Company Captain. Whether it would be by the Gwynevere’s guiding hand or fortune’s wheel, I met a captain of an empty company. An empty company but I daresay it is guarding something more important than an empty kingdom.” I said, “Captain, I have been a wanderer to many castles and town. All of them sharing the same fate as Anor Londo, fallen kings in halls running rampant with ghouls. I cannot tell you the name of these kingdoms but I can tell you that Lord Gwyn was the first to link the flame. I can tell people who’d listen that Artorias was one of the bravest knights to venture into the abyss; that Anor Londo once upon a time was a place where the sunlight was eternal.”

If she was moved by my conviction, she hadn’t shown it yet, “All of that I owe to you, Captain Yorshka. I have no sway over what you believe in and if you choose to disband the Blade of the Darkmoon then so be it. Know that I did not swear only upon the Lord Gwyndolin, I swore my fealty to you,” I said, kneeling before her. “I am not the best knight you’ve had but as far as I’m aware, I’m the only knight who wants to stay with you.”

“Rise,” Captain Yorshka softly said, “My thanks to thee for thine compassion. I will need time to collect myself, Knight. I beseech thee to let me do this on my own.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded, “Verily.”

“Alright then,” I said, turning around to obey my captain’s orders, “Take care of yourself, Captain.”

I have seen what souls become when they lost their purpose, a hollowed version of themselves as the void within them ate away at their lives. There is a lot of pain in the words I’m penning down now. My handwriting is as bad as the state of mind I was in. Cold breath after cold breath, my head and my chest feels as if they’re being constricted. Suffering. That’s what it is. My thoughts can’t escape the painting of my tomorrow when I wake up to a hollowed captain.

I rubbed repair powder on my hammer to take my mind off things in the meantime. I’m sure Captain Yorshka would have appreciated her church being cleansed from the cretins around the premise. I’m now sitting on a lonely chair that was still standing by the entrance.

There is a long night ahead.

I fulfilled my promise, showing up the next day. As I made my way around the church tower again, I had my hammer in hand.

“Knight,” My captain called. The clinks in my armour must have given me away.

I didn’t reply not until I had made the corner.

“It is thee,” She said, relieved, just as relieved as I was.

I kept my hammer away and smiled, “Captain.”

“Please,” she showed me where she wanted me to stand, in front of her. After I obliged, she lifted her arm out, “Help me stand.”

I did as she asked. She put her strength on my arm to get on her feet.

“My thanks,” She said, dragging her feeble feet to the balustrade. She brought herself closer to the castle than I’ve ever seen, “I have given much thought to thy words. It is true, as my own gaze falls on what remains of Anor Londo, who can tell how long the castle hath been in such a state?”

I concurred.

“I am disbanding the Blade of the Darkmoon,” Captain Yorshka said and continued on before I could interrupt, “And it will be born anew. We shall dawn the same banner but for a different purpose.”

I asked, “What’s the purpose, Captain?”

“Thou art not a knight of mine no longer,” She said, “Thou may do as thy please now. Link the flame, Ashen One, or don’t.”

“Then as I please, I wish to renew my vows to my former captain’s covenant,” I said, kneeling before her. She did not have to tell me. “Grant me purpose, Captain.”

Captain Yorshka smiled:

_Hear my voice._

_Captain to this knightless company, I remain yet again._

_If thou shalt swear by the Covenant, to become_

_A bearer of memory to Father Gwyn and Sister Gwynevere,_

_A blade that shall hunt the foes of our lords_

_And protect what was and what is left of Anor Londo._

_Then I place thee under the aegis,_

_And the power of the Darkmoon._

_Thou'rt now a Blade of the Darkmoon._

_The only knight of our company._

_Swear this oath, and face thy solemn duty._


End file.
